THE SQUARE MILE MONTREAL 1860-1914 by Julia Gersovitz
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THE SQUARE MILE MONTREAL 1860-1914 by Julia Gersovitz. .,-:.~.~ia :Jerso:r·;;z. i"' a Mon:real. arci:iu:c: and ;;eaches at .VcGiH {!nilJersi!;l! 's Schoot .Jf Architecture Examining our Lost architectural heritage through the hiU-side mansions of Montreal ' s Victorian aristocracy ... T \\ontrealers know that were the mansions, isolated one from erbrool<e Street is the longest another by acres of garden. The area in the City of \\ontreal, but !)ad an immediate image of few realize that tt once enjoyed a exclusiveness and exclusion, of wealth deserved reputation as the 'Fifth and power. The area between Avenue' of \iontreal, and that it wa:. Sherbrooke Street and Dorchester the ma or thoroughfare of an area Boulevard was, with a few exceptions, known as The Square Mile. 1 built up with upper middle-class rowhouses, and so had a distinctly different and less luxurious impact. Its boundaries are generally defined in two ways. Literally, they are Pine It is difficult to believe perhaps, in and Cedar Avenues to the north, surveying the architectural miscellany University Street to the east, that comprises the district today, with Dorchester Boulevard to t he south, and its shoddy high-rise apartment blocks Guy Street and Cote des Neiges dwarfing the remaining nineteenth Boulevard to the west. TraditionaJiy, century houses, that from 1360 to however, they demarcate an area 1914 the Square Mile was the most which is in reality a half-square mile, ;>restigious residential district tn the bounded not by Dorchester Boulevard, city, indeed, in the entire country. but by Sherbrool<e Street. By I 900, seventy percent of the wealth of Canada was held by the The reason for this discrepancy s famtlies of the twenty-five thousand $imple. Above Sherbrool<e Street, tndtvtduals who lived within its climbing the slope of Mount Royal boundnes. 8 View of Mc:GiZ'l ~ampus, after 1908 As may be expected from -this By 1870, the picture had change<. commercial, financial and rellgious statistic, the financiers and merchants dramatically. The city was buildings as well as the homes of the who lived there lived graciously, in prosperous. "Triumphs of architec-tural ordinary cit1zens and the wealthy opulent surroundings. Their residences skill... "we re everywhere. 2 What was merchants. were built by the leading architects of responsible for so radical ar. their time, and designed in the latest alteration? It was essentially due to Shortly before 1850, there was a styles, as only the very rich can ever technological advances that permitted decided residential shift out of the afford to do. Thus, an analysis of the the city to develop as a transportation crowded and busy old city. The first development of the Square Mile and nucleus and shipping center. These development occurred along St. its architecture, provides an included harbour improvements, 1\ntoine Street in the west and around oppurtunity to study the work of the year-round rail links with the United Viger Square m the east. But best Montreal architects, and to States, and the opening of the Victoria speculators were quick to realize the analyze the architectural trends that Bridge. potential of the area near and on the were fashionable at the time. Before southern slopes of \1ount Royal. Here tracing the evolution of the Square was the poss1bl11ty of spacious, Mlle, it is important to understand The economic boom that Montreal salubrious quarters, with the added something of the geographics and witnessed between 1850 and 1870 was attraction of splendid views and economics of Montreal just prior to paralleled by a growth in the city beautiful landscapes. 1860. limits. Prior to 1850, the population was still largely contained within an In 1832, James McGregor described its In 1849, the city was In the depths of area defined by the old fortification rustiC character: " ... the mountain is an economic depression. The walls - today known as Le Vieux about 800 feet above the level of the population had been decimated by Montreal. Within the triangle bounded river; along its foot, and particularly cholera and the 'ship fever' plague. by McGill Street to the west, Craig up its sides, are thickly interspersed Stores and houses were empty. The ~eetro~oo~a~~r~erwere orchards, cornfields and v11las; abov~ streets seemed deserted and dismal. located all the prmcpal administrative, which to the verv summit of the 9 The Fifth Column 'Pisiimorlt ', 1820 mountain, trees grow in luxuriant and 60's was followed by a building thell" increasing urban environment, to variety .•. ". 3 By 1&60. the orchards depression. The economic climate w~ p1cn1c, stroll and ride their carriages. were being cut down and the poor, and the political conditions development that was to result in the unstable. The major land assembly of The decade of the 1880's, in contrast Square Mile was beginning. the I 870's was undertaken not for to the 70's was a period much like the development, but to ensure 1860's, of increasing prosperity and Gceystone Decades 1&60-1390 non-development. In 1872, burgeoning growth in the city's expropnations began to create a pubUc population. lt culiminated in a The first residences built in the park on Mount Royal. Two years building boom between 1887 and 1890. Square Mile were randomly placed on later Fredick Law Olmstead, the The political climate was stable; their sites. They had little connection foremost landscape architect on the economic conditions were good. The to the public roads, because indeed conttnent, was hired to undertake the C.P.R. was under construction. there were hardly any roads. When design. Fortunes were amassed, and great development began in the 1850's and houses planned. early 1860's, it followed a set pattern. The opening of the park enhanced the Building OCC\Jred aher the subdivision value of the land in the Square Mile One of the most elaborate of these, of an existing estate, and the in a number of ways. Firstly, of and the only one largely intact today, homologation of a street (or streets) ause, by takmg hundreds of acres of was Lord Mount Stephen's house. It through it, so that each individual lot potenual real estate off the market it was built on Orummond Street, to the was afforded on a pubUc thoroughfare. increased the worth of the remaining designs of William T. Thomas, and TITOtJEhout most of the history of :he land that could be developed. was said to cost, in 1884, the princely Square \.tile. the north-south side Sea:ndly, it added a value to the area sum of $600,000.5 This statistic alone streets 'll.ere cul~e-sacs. !"Ullning up which now boasted a natural and sets the house apart. But more t.l'te :nount;u.., ~rom Sherbrooke Street. protected park as its own playground .mportant to the architectural This provided a quiet enclave for the and bad<drop. The mountain !>ecame historian is the fact that it was one reSldents of the area. As Stephen an extension of the Square Mile, of the last significant houses to be Leacock .,., rote: " ... Each street ~~o·as where :he wealthy could retreat from built in the district of the traditional thus blind with t.'lat blindness that ~ peace. ~ature aided. man. The elms that gro.,., so easily on Montreal bland, thus left !n secluded growth, fashioned eaft street into a Gothic Cathedral ..•". This sequence can be traced in the di,·ision and sale of the \kTavish estate, the laying out of McTavish, Peel and Stanley Streets, and the construction of a number of large homes on the land. It was a time when pres :igious residences were knoo;s;n by the1r names, and not their adcresses. nese Included the 'Prince of '11. ales Terrace' (Browne and Footner, Architects, 1&60); 'Braehead' (Andrew B. Taf:, Architect, 1863); 'Thornhlll' ('1\'.T. Thomas, Architect, c.1862); 'Rav~nscrag' (J. '11.. Hop!< ins, Architect, 1861..(;3}; 'The Elms' (J.W. HOJ)klns, Architect, c.l862); 'Lononlet' (J. \\. Hopkin.s. Architect, c.l865); and 'Oilcoosha' (J.J. Browne, Architect, c.l86.5). The boom period of the late 1850's 10 The Square Mile Montreal greystone. acquainted; that it becomes 1860's this style was bemg abandoned whiter and brighter with age; for a variety of increasingly popular lhe rockface of Mount Royal, and the that this in a very hght stone revivals that were being developed in bedrock of the island is a h ard grey is a very great recommendation, England and the United States. limestone, designated by geologists as for while dark stones are, mOst Trenton Limestone. Up to the end of of them, improved with age and Their use in Montreal was mdicative the n tneteenth century most of become meUower in tone, in of the growing number of trained Montreal's architecture was built of white building marbles and stone architects practicing in the city by this greystone, cut from local quarries. almost as pure in colour when the 1860's. Until that time, it was The native stone is tough, and not new, a'W only means dirt and common practice for contractors to easy to wor k, but it has unique stam•..• prepare the designs of even the most properties. The following excerpt elaborate residences. 7 \icKays from an article about the Cavenhill The domestic a rchitecture of the Directory of 1856- 57 listed onJy nine Block in the January 1870 issue of period 1860-1890 was distinguished by architectural and civil engmeering American Architect and Builders several characterist ics. lt related to firms. By 1870 the list had swollen Monthly, gives some idea of what the architecture that precee<fed it by to nineteen.